Obama Selects Hedman, Martin to Lead EPA Regions 5 and 8

Apr 23, 2010

James B. Martin

President Barack Obama has selected Susan Hedman and James B. Martin to be the Environmental Protection Agency's regional administrators for Region 5 and 8, respectively.

Since 2005, Hedman has served as environmental counsel and senior assistant attorney to the Illinois Attorney General, working as chief negotiator for litigation and legislation relating to environmental protection, energy efficiency, renewable energy, carbon capture technology and associated consumer issues.

Martin was executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, managing and administering a department of more than 2,000 employees that oversee the state’s environmental protection policies.

Hedman, who taught environmental policy courses at Northland College in Ashland, Wis., in the 1980s, has held numerous positions in environmental law and policy. She was senior policy adviser on energy and recycling at the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity; staff attorney for the Environmental Law and Policy Center; First Legal Officer for the United Nations Security Council team charged with analyzing environmental damage from oil fires in Kuwait; and research director for the Center for Global Change at the University of Maryland.

She obtained her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1987 before earning a Ph.D. from the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies in Madison, Wis., two years later.

Martin has worked in the environmental field for more than 20 years, primarily in Colorado. He was executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, where he managed 1,225 employees and a budget of $470 million. From 2005 to 2007, he managed a non-profit organization that focuses on energy, public lands, and water issues. In 2004, he headed the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado School of Law. Martin spent a decade as the senior attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund in Boulder, Colo., and Oakland, Calif.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Knox College and his J.D. from Northwestern Law School, Lewis and Clark College.

Regional administrators promote state and local environmental protection efforts and serve as a liaison to state and local government officials. They are tasked with ensuring EPA's efforts to address the environmental crises of today are rooted in three fundamental values: science-based policies and programs, adherence to the rule of law, and transparency.